“For the first time, researchers have implanted an electrode that can record neural activity while it simultaneously delivers electric current to the brain.

Minneapolis-based medical device company Medtronic developed the device, which can also adjust its electrical output in response to the changing conditions of the brain. This automated control could one day improve deep brain stimulation treatment and even enable doctors to use the device to treat more conditions, experts say.

..The patient trials that launched on Wednesday will test whether Medtronic’s new device can safely record electrical activity in a patient’s brains while also delivering electric currents. These tests will explore how patients’ brains respond to deep brain stimulation therapy. However, according to lab animal tests, the device is capable of not only sensing the electrical activity of the brain tissue it sits in but of also changing its output accordingly.”